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Southwest Notes: Kevin Porter Jr., Spurs, Hart, Ingram

November 14th, 2021 at 5:14pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. has developed a unique sensibility in his new role this season as Houston’s starting point guard, writes Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. Porter calls his own style “Scoot ball.”

“Basketball today is hardly traditional,” said Porter of his role with the Rockets. “I tried to become a traditional (point guard), but that’s not me at all. I’m ‘Scoot.’ I get a bucket or set my guy up.”

The 6’4″ guard, who was a small forward during his rookie season with the Cavaliers and a shooting guard last year with the Rockets, is averaging 13.3 PPG, 5.2 APG, 4.2 RPG and 1.2 SPG for a tanking Houston club in the second season of a rebuild.

There’s more out of the Southwest Division:

Spurs forward Doug McDermott was well aware of teen rookie shooting guard Joshua Primo years before they were teammates, as Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News details. “I’ve been impressed with him for a long time,” McDermott said. “My dad [Creighton head coach Greg McDermott] recruited him really hard at Creighton. I think it came down to Creighton and Alabama. So I’ve been watching Josh for a long time. I’ve always known he was going to be a hell of a player.” The 18-year-old Primo is currently logging significant minutes with San Antonio’s G League affiliate, the Austin Spurs. “[My college decision] came down to [Creighton] and Alabama,” Primo confirmed. “I went to Alabama, but we still kept in touch.”
Pelicans guard Josh Hart appreciates new head coach Willie Green‘s confidence in his shot creation, per Christian Clark of NOLA.com. “Willie has all the trust in me to go out there and play my game and play with confidence,” Hart said. “I think that’s the biggest thing that we talked about. It wasn’t just standing in the corner and hoping and praying for the ball.”
Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram returned to action following a seven-game absence due to a hip contusion, and his activity helped fuel just the second New Orleans victory of the year, a 112-101 defeat of the Grizzlies. William Guillory of The Athletic examines how Ingram’s 19 points helped the Pelicans end their nine-game losing streak. Ingram addressed the calming influence of new head coach Willie Green through a tumultuous start to the club’s 2021/22 season. “(He’s) just keeping guys positive — making sure their heads (are) up, making sure they’re staying confident in everything that they’re doing,” Ingram said. “Our guys have put in the work. He sees that, and he just wants everybody to be successful on the basketball floor.”

Woj: Kyle Lowry, Lonzo Ball Tampering Investigations Nearing End

November 12th, 2021 at 8:54pm CST by Rory Maher

At the beginning of August, the NBA launched investigations into two separate sign-and-trade deals; one that sent Lonzo Ball from the Pelicans to the Bulls, and a second that sent Kyle Lowry from the Raptors to the Heat.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, those investigations into potential tampering or gun-jumping are nearing a conclusion, and rulings could be imminent.

It’s no secret that teams and agents begin discussing free agent deals prior to the officially listed starting time and date, but both of these cases are a little more blatant in that Lowry was reportedly on the move a few hours before the window opened, and Ball’s deal with Chicago was reported literally the minute free agency opened.

Sign-and-trades typically receive even more scrutiny since they’re more complex and typically require more time to complete than a typical free agent negotiation.

Last year, for instance, an alleged sign-and-trade agreement involving the Bucks, Kings, and Bogdan Bogdanovic was reported several days before free agency officially began. The league ended up taking away Milwaukee’s 2022 second-round pick after investigating that situation, while Bogdanovic – who claimed he never agreed to terms with the Bucks – landed in Atlanta instead.

Woj relays that the NBA took into consideration that Bogdanovic ultimately didn’t end up in Milwaukee in that situation, so the penalties could be steeper for these two investigations, depending on the league’s findings.

As Woj notes, the NBA increased tampering penalties a couple of years ago, giving the league the power to fine teams for up to $10MM, suspend executives, take away draft picks, or even void deals altogether if proof of tampering is found. Voiding the contracts is considered extremely unlikely, but all of the other options could be on the table.

Southwest Notes: Pelicans, Ingram, Alexander-Walker, Young

November 12th, 2021 at 5:58pm CST by Rory Maher

The Pelicans currently have a 1-11 record, worst in the NBA. They’ve lost eight games in a row. David Griffin, the team’s executive VP of basketball operations, is reportedly on the hot seat. All-Star Zion Williamson has yet to play a game following foot surgery. Fellow former All-Star Brandon Ingram is out for the seventh consecutive game with a hip contusion, per Christian Clark of NOLA.com (Twitter link).

Coach Willie Green said Ingram could return soon following a full practice yesterday, per Andrew Lopez of ESPN (Twitter link). Obviously, that won’t happen tonight.

Needless to say, things are not going well in New Orleans.

According to Scott Kushner of NOLA.com, Griffin has done a poor job building the roster around Zion and Ingram. Kushner says the team’s first-round draft picks under Griffin (aside from Zion) haven’t proven to be reliable rotation players, let alone pieces to build around. He didn’t list them by name, but he was referring to Jaxson Hayes (8th), Nickeil Alexander-Walker (17th), Kira Lewis (13th), and rookie Trey Murphy (17th).

Kusher notes that despite modest expectation from fans, the team is failing to deliver an interesting, competitive product that has a clear direction, and that falls squarely on Griffin.

Here’s more from the Southwest:

Alexander-Walker has been heavily scrutinized for a slow start to the season, but he was one of the silver linings of the Pelicans‘ loss to the Thunder on Wednesday, scoring 22 points in the fourth quarter. Will Guillory of The Athletic opines that keeping Alexander-Walker in attack-mode is one of the keys for the Pelicans to turn their losing streak around. Guillory also believes the team needs to shorten the rotation and keep believing in each other.
Despite being in-and-out of the lineup, Thaddeus Young‘s professionalism and workman-like mentality have rubbed off on the young Spurs. He’s also been highly productive in his limited minutes. Young is a free agent at the end of the season and is viewed as a valuable trade chip. He knows he may not last the entire season with the team, but that hasn’t impacted his mindset, writes Mike Finger of the San Antonio Express-News. “I am not sure what is going to happen with me, whether I will be here next year or if I will be here past the trade deadline,” Young said. “But, at the end of the day, at this point in time, this moment, I am here, I am a San Antonio Spur and I am planning on giving 120 percent each night.”
Check out our Pelicans and Spurs team pages for the most recent notes and rumors on the two teams.

Pelicans’ David Griffin Reportedly On Hot Seat

November 11th, 2021 at 8:20am CST by Luke Adams

There has been more and more chatter around the NBA in recent weeks about David Griffin‘s job security, according to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, who says that Griffin’s hold on his position as Pelicans executive VP of basketball operations appears increasingly tenuous.

The Pelicans came into the season with playoff aspirations, but have lost eight consecutive games and own a league-worst 1-11 record. The team has been without Zion Williamson so far, and Griffin has faced criticism for making misleading comments on Media Day about when the former No. 1 pick would be ready to return from his offseason foot surgery.

When Griffin took the reins in New Orleans in 2019, the Pelicans were in position to draft Williamson and cash in on trades involving stars Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday, giving them a massive leg up in the rebuilding process.

Although Griffin did well to stock up on draft picks in the Davis and Holiday blockbusters, he has made a handful of other questionable moves, including extending Steven Adams and then dumping him a year later before the extension even took effect. Additionally, besides Williamson, Griffin’s first-round picks in 2019 and 2020 – Jaxson Hayes, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Kira Lewis – have yet to make a major impact at the NBA level.

According to Fischer, another recent incident raised eyebrows around the league. A NOLA.com report in September claimed that Griffin blamed the Pelicans’ poor start in 2019/20 on former head coach Alvin Gentry, telling one person, “I give Alvin all the answers to the test, and he still fails.” After Sacramento beat the Pelicans in New Orleans on October 29, Griffin approached Gentry – now a Kings assistant – to say hello, but Gentry viewed Griffin’s friendliness as inauthentic, per Fischer.

During that interaction, Fischer says, Griffin denied multiple details from that NOLA.com report, while Gentry pointed out that the Pelicans had essentially the same record under Stan Van Gundy (31-41) in 2020/21 as they did under Gentry in ’19/20. “You must not have given Stan the answers to the test, either,” Gentry shouted at Griffin, per Fischer’s sources, who say the two men had to be separated.

Meanwhile, Willie Green, the third coach of Griffin’s tenure with the Pelicans, expressed frustration following the club’s loss to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night, as Andrew Lopez of ESPN details. Four New Orleans players combined for five technical fouls in the game, prompting Green to call out his players after the game for complaining about foul calls they “haven’t earned.” The first-year head coach also wasn’t happy with his players’ compete level.

“It’s not the losing streak. It’s not one quarter. It’s our approach to this game,” Green said. “There were moments in the game where we just didn’t have guys who didn’t compete hard enough for me. Hard enough for our team. That’s a non-negotiable for me. That’s the deal. That’s who we are. As the leader of this team, I can’t have that. I can’t have guys on the floor if they aren’t going to give 110%.”

Getting Williamson and Brandon Ingram (hip) back on the court will go a long way toward making the Pelicans competitive again, but the club’s early-season slump is creating an increasingly difficult path to playoff contention. If New Orleans doesn’t bounce back in a major way, significant changes could be coming, and the head coach is unlikely to be the fall guy for a third straight year — that means Griffin finds himself firmly on the hot seat.

Southwest Notes: Alexander-Walker, Brooks, Wood, Poeltl

November 9th, 2021 at 5:38pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Like many of his teammates, Pelicans guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker has struggled out of the gate this fall, prompting Christian Clark of NOLA.com to take a look at his season thus far. The 1-10 Pelicans currently have the NBA’s worst record, and while a lot of that is a result of the extended absences of All-Star forwards Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, Alexander-Walker’s slow start certainly hasn’t helped.

Clark notes that Alexander-Walker has been one of the worst volume shooters in the league, connecting on 35.5% of his 15.4 field goal attempts a game, including 25.3% on his 7.9 three-point looks. Among players attempting at least 10 field goals per night, he currently ranks 114th out of 117 in true shooting percentage. Clark wonders if Alexander-Walker, and the Pelicans, would be better served by correcting the 6’6″ shooting guard’s shot profile (he shoots more from long-range than from within the arc) and attempting more shots inside the paint and fewer from the three-point arc.

There’s more out of the Southwest Division:

With stalwart Grizzlies swingman Dillon Brooks poised to return to the hardwood for Memphis for the first time since the 2021 playoffs, Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian takes a look at how Brooks could spruce up the club’s defense. Brooks has been absent for the entire 2021/22 season to this point with a left hand fracture.
Though Rockets power forward Christian Wood seems to be irked about the club’s clear desire to tank in the short-term, he has made a point to express publicly that he wants to stick around, per Rahat Huq of The Houston Chronicle. “I’m here to stay in Houston through the good and bad,” Wood tweeted this week.
Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has revealed that he does not expect center Jakob Poeltl to return from the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols this week, per Tom Orsborne of the San Antonio Express-News. “I am not exactly sure” of the big man’s timetable, Popovich said. “They tell me every day, but I’m not a scientist. I listen to what they say, but I know he is not going to be ready for tomorrow or Friday.”

Pelicans Listing Brandon Ingram As Questionable For Monday

November 7th, 2021 at 9:04pm CST by JD Shaw

The Pelicans are listing star forward Brandon Ingram (right hip contusion) as questionable for Monday’s contest against Dallas, the team relayed. Ingram has missed four straight games due to the injury. New Orleans is also listing Herb Jones (ankle soreness) as questionable.

Pelicans Notes: Zion, Alexander-Walker, Hayes, Jones

November 4th, 2021 at 9:42am CST by Luke Adams

Zion Williamson‘s weight and conditioning are receiving increased scrutiny as his recovery from offseason foot surgery drags on, according to Christian Clark of NOLA.com, who notes that multiple members of the national media have focused on the issue this week.

In a Substack article about the Pelicans star, veteran reporter Marc Stein suggested that Williamson has to be a “more active participant in his own recovery” and must find a way to better manage his weight. Former teammate J.J. Redick, now an analyst for ESPN, stated that Zion “has to be in better shape.” TNT’s television studio analysts also weighed in on the subject on Tuesday, with Charles Barkley joking that recent video of Williamson working out “looked like me and Shaq had a baby.”

Pelicans fans can’t be thrilled that Williamson continues to battle health problems as Ja Morant continues to emerge as one of the league’s brightest young stars in Memphis, but it’s revision history to suggest New Orleans should’ve drafted Morant over Zion with the No. 1 overall pick in 2019, Stein notes. According to Stein, he recently asked executives from 10 different teams about that choice and only one said he might’ve been willing to take Morant first overall two years ago — and even that exec acknowledged that team ownership probably wouldn’t have signed off.

Here’s more on the Pelicans:

The 1-8 Pelicans can reasonably expect to be better once Williamson and Brandon Ingram (hip) are back on the court, but it’s a discouraging sign that other young breakout candidates – such as Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jaxson Hayes – are off to underwhelming starts this season, writes William Guillory of The Athletic.
Hayes, who is typically the backup center behind Jonas Valanciunas, was replaced on the depth chart by Willy Hernangomez in Wednesday’s game, Clark writes for NOLA.com. Hayes only logged four minutes and didn’t play in the second half. It’s unclear if that was just a one-game change or if Hernangomez could see more action going forward, says Clark.
Pelicans rookie Herb Jones was placed in the NBA’s concussion protocol on Wednesday after sustaining a concussion in Tuesday’s game vs. Phoenix, the team announced in a press release. He’ll have to show he’s symptom-free before being cleared to return.

Southwest Notes: Zion, Jackson Jr., Ntilikina

November 2nd, 2021 at 12:57pm CST by Arthur Hill

Pelicans coach Willie Green said doctors are “encouraged” by the latest imaging on Zion Williamson‘s surgically repaired right foot, but Scott Kushner of NOLA.com believes it’s hard to see Monday’s update as good news. Another round of scans will be conducted in two to three weeks. In the meantime, Williamson is taking part in 5-on-0 workouts, but hasn’t been cleared for full scrimmages.

Kushner compares the delay to Williamson’s rookie season, when he sat out three months after a preseason knee injury that originally had a six- to eight-week projected recovery time. He will miss eight more games if he’s able to return in two weeks, Kushner adds, and 12 if it’s three weeks. It could be much longer if the next set of scans don’t show improvement.

“We need him,” center Jonas Valanciunas said. “We are waiting every day for him to come back. It’s going to be a different look with our team. But he’s a huge piece for us. We need him back. Then we’re going to see what everything looks like.”

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

Another Pelicans season is already in danger of slipping away, and William Guillory of The Athletic is calling on the organization to place a greater emphasis on Williamson’s weight and conditioning. Guillory adds that while Williamson’s size may not have caused the two injuries, it played a role in keeping him out so long two years ago and will likely do the same this season. New Orleans has been competitive despite its 1-6 start, Guillory notes, but the club doesn’t have anyone to take over on offense in close games.
The Grizzlies need more production from Jaren Jackson Jr. to become legitimate contenders, writes Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer. Jackson, who received a four-year extension before the season began, is the only Memphis big man who can shoot from the perimeter, but he’s connecting at just a 31.3% rate through seven games. In addition, frequent foul trouble is limiting him to just 26 minutes per night.
Frank Ntilikina is making a case for more playing time with the Mavericks, tweets Tim MacMahon of ESPN. The former Knicks guard has only been on the court for 61 minutes this season, but Dallas is plus-20 in that time. “When you look at the rotation, you have to play him,” said coach Jason Kidd.

Zion Williamson Out At Least 2-3 More Weeks

November 1st, 2021 at 1:36pm CST by Luke Adams

Pelicans head coach Willie Green provided a health update on Zion Williamson today, telling reporters that doctors are encouraged by the latest scans on the forward’s foot (Twitter link via Andrew Lopez of ESPN).

According to Green, Williamson is participating in 5-on-0 workouts and has shown the ability to cut, but hasn’t yet been cleared for 5-on-5 work. The plan is for the former No. 1 overall pick to undergo more scans in about two or three weeks in the hopes of clearing him to participate fully in practice and determine a timeline for his return (Twitter link via William Guillory of The Athletic).

When Pelicans head of basketball operations David Griffin first revealed on Media Day last month that Williamson had undergone surgery on his foot in the offseason, he conveyed optimism that the 21-year-old would be ready to go by the regular season. However, prior to opening night, Griffin walked those comments back, suggesting that he hadn’t meant the start of the regular season.

Even if Williamson is cleared to return to action in three weeks, which is an optimistic timeline, he’d miss about 12 more games for a Pelicans team that has started the season with a 1-6 record. New Orleans has playoff aspirations this season, but the club hasn’t looked good on either end of the court with the former No. 1 overall pick out of the lineup and risks digging a deeper hole for itself in the coming weeks.

Green also said today that Brandon Ingram, who is dealing with a right hip contusion, is still sore and is considered day-to-day (Twitter link via Guillory).

Pelicans Facing Familiar Start To Season

October 31st, 2021 at 8:59pm CST by JD Shaw

The Pelicans are facing a familiar start to the season, Christian Clark of NOLA.com writes. Zion Williamson has yet to play due to injury, leading New Orleans to start the season with a 1-6 record. On top of that, Nickeil Alexander-Walker is dealing with some shooting struggles, making 15 of 57 three-pointers thus far. “Everyone just tells me to keep shooting,” Alexander-Walker said on Thursday. “They trust me to take those shots. Last night [against Atlanta], Zion told me those are shots I need to take. It takes pressure off (Brandon Ingram). It’s comforting to hear they want me to keep shooting even though I haven’t been making shots. To know they have faith in me.”